Below is my column in The Hill on the growing calls for an organized resistance to the Trump Administration by Democratic governors and prosecutors. They may find, however, that the resistance movement this time around will be facing significant legal and political headwinds.
Here is the column:
The single most common principle of recovery programs is that the first step is to admit that you have a problem.
That first step continues to elude the politicians and pundits who unsuccessfully pushed lawfare and panic politics for years. That includes prosecutors like New York Attorney General Letitia James and politicians like Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who affirmed this week that they will be redoubling, not reconsidering, their past positions.
For its part, The Washington Post quickly posted an editorial titled “The second resistance to Trump must start now.” They may, however, find the resistance more challenging both politically and legally this time around.
It is important to note at the outset that there is no reason Democratic activists should abandon their values just because they lost this election. Our system is strengthened by passionate and active advocacy.
Rather, it is the collective fury and delirium of the post-election protests that was so disconcerting. Pundits lashed out at the majority of voters, insisting that the election established that half of the nation is composed of racists, misogynists or domination addicts who long to submit to tyranny.
Others blamed free speech and the fact that social media allows “disinformation” to be read by ignorant voters. In other words, the problem could not possibly be themselves. It was, rather, the public, which refused to listen.
That does not bode well for the Democratic Party. As someone raised in a liberal politically active family in Chicago, I had hoped for greater introspection after this election blowout.
Ordinarily, recovery can begin with “a terrible experience” when someone hits rock bottom.
After a crushing electoral defeat and the loss of the White House and likely both houses of Congress, one would think that Democrats would be ready for that first step to recovery. However, those hoping for a new leaf on the left do not understand the true addictive hold of rage.
In my recent book, “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage,” I explore rage and our long history of rage politics. There is a certain release that comes with rage in allowing people to do and say things that you would never do or say. People rarely admit it, but they like it. It is the ultimate high produced by the lowest form of political discourse.
Over the course of the last eight years, the U.S. has become a nation of rage addicts.
For months, Democratic leaders denounced Donald Trump and his supporters as fascists and neo-Nazis. President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and others suggested that democracy itself was about to die unless Democrats were kept in power.
Just before the election, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul called those voting for Trump “anti-American.” By Hochul’s measure, over half of the American electorate is now “anti-American.”
James is the face of lawfare. She may have done more to reelect Trump than anyone other than the president himself. She ran on nailing Trump on something, anything. In New York, she was joined by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in this ill-conceived effort. They fulfilled the narrative of a weaponized legal system. Every new legal action seemed to produce another surge in polling for Trump.
Yet there James was, soon after the election, with another press conference promising again to unleash the powers of her office to stop Trump’s policies.
Then there was Pritzker, doing the community theater version of “The Avengers” and declaring, “You come for my people, you come through me.”
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) added that he too will “fight to the death” against Trump’s agenda.
Rather than lower the rhetoric, these rage-addicts ran out for another hit.
Our prior periods of rage politics were largely ended by the public in major election shifts like the one this month. Things, however, are different this time around both politically and legally. The problem for the resistance is the very democracy that they claimed to be saving.
Democrats lost after opposing policies supported by an astonishing share of the public at a time of deep political division. That effort included opposing voter ID laws favored by 84 percent of the public, among other things.
They are now committed to opposing policies central to this election blowout, including deportations of illegal immigrants, which is favored in some polls by two-thirds of Americans.
Likewise, Democrats have already doubled down on attacks on free speech, including blaming their loss on the absence of sufficient censorship. On MSNBC, host Mika Brzezinski blamed the loss in part on “massive disinformation.” Yet, according to some polls, free speech ranked as high as second among issues on Election Day.
According to CNN, Trump’s performance was the best among young people (18-29 years old) in 20 years, the best among Black voters in 48 years, and the best among Hispanic voters in more than 50 years.
Harris actually lost a bit of support with women, and Trump won handily among some groups of women.
None of that seems to matter this time. We have an alliance of political media and academic interests wholly untethered to the views of most of the public. Yet, with both houses of Congress under Republican control, the investigations and impeachment efforts that hounded Trump throughout his first term will be less of a threat in his second term.
For that reason, the center of gravity of the “second resistance” will shift to Democratic prosecutors like James, Bragg and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who was just reelected.
Various Democratic governors are also pledging to thwart Trump’s policies despite the results of the election.
The “second resistance” will try to use state power to oppose the very issues and policies that led to this historic political shift. That means that there will be a legal shift in the focus of litigation to inherent federal powers versus state powers. That battle will favor the Trump administration.
In fairness to these Democratic politicians, they are certainly free to go to the courts, as Republicans did under Biden to argue for limitations on federal powers. But the promise of California Gov. Gavin Newsom to “Trump-proof” the state is easier to make rhetorically than it will be to keep legally.
Indeed, Trump will be able to cite a curious ally in this fight: Barack Obama. It was Obama who successfully swatted down state efforts to pursue their own policies and programs on immigration enforcement. Obama insisted that state laws were preempted in the area and the Supreme Court largely agreed in its 2012 decision in Arizona v. U.S.
Congress may even seek to tie the receipt of federal funds to states cooperating with federal mandates. For this reason, Democrats, who campaigned on the promise to end the filibuster for the good of democracy, suddenly became firm believers in that Senate rule right around 2:30 a.m. last Wednesday.
As the majority of the country walks away from the party shaking their heads, many activists are left only with their rage. Instead of reappraising the years of far-left orthodoxy and intolerance, some are calling to tear down the system or take drastic individual actions, including for women to break up with their boyfriends and husbands or to cut off their hair.
They will actually keep their rage and dump their relationships. Now that really is an addiction.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. He is the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
Watching those Democrats pledge their unyielding hate for Trump reminded me of a fighter who practices by, “shadow boxing!” No opponent needed . . . He’s just swinging his arms at his own shadow!
The Common man doesn’t give two craps about A listers or the elites of this country. They don’t matter anymore.
Now President Donald J. Trump must grab the bull by the horns and lead America.
Now President Donald J. Trump MUST pull a full “Lincoln” and close the border, impose martial law, prosecute a war against the communist rebellion without a formal declaration, shred the Communist Manifesto and irrevocably extirpate all principles of communism in America, implement the “manifest tenor” of the Constitution and Bill of Rights including absolute freedom, absolute free enterprise, absolute free markets, and absolute private property including a fully constitutional dearth of taxation and regulation, eliminate the Departments of Labor, Education, Agriculture, Energy, HUD, and EPA, issue the “Deportation Proclamation” deporting all illegal aliens, past and present, including those who illegally pursued citizenship as criminal border crossers and “asylum” seekers who all made false and fraudulent claims of phantom, nonexistent persecution as foreign citizens with no U.S. rights, establish coherent voter qualifications by State legislatures per the Constitution, declare English the sole official language of the United States, suspend habeas corpus, smash opposition printing presses, networks, podcasts, social media platforms, etc., and throw anyone and everyone who opposes him in prison to Save the Union until America is placed squarely back on the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Rock Bottom is found only in hindsight, when it is revealed as the point at which one stopped digging.
Looks like they’re going to keep taking us further down.
Meanwhile, at the Tuskegee University centennial reunion, an out-of-control P-51D Mustang accidentally sprayed the homecoming crowd with machine gun fire. One was killed and several injured.
(I changed up the story a bit, so as not to stereotype anyone.)
Rush Limbaugh’s prediction became reality, as confirmed in the following piece
This is an excerpt. the entire piece is quite astonishing
How Trump crushed Obama’s legacy
Obama’s role in the Harris campaign was truthfully less strange than the fact that the former President somehow remained in Washington after his time in the White House was over, instead taking meetings in his Kalorama mansion, which is hardly the most valuable entry in his bulging portfolio of luxury properties — which also includes high Gilded Age mansions in Hawaii and Martha’s Vineyard. But it was surely the most important, serving as the centre of his unprecedented Shadow Presidency.
As the leader of the Democratic Party, Obama was hardly a pretender to power in Washington. Rather, between 2008 and the evening of 5 November 2024, he was usually the foremost power in the land. After serving two elected terms in the White House, Obama then set up and captained the so-called “Resistance” to Trump — an activity that was contrary to all prior American norms and practices. After Trump left, Obama stayed in Washington and continued his role as unelected Party Leader during what had been advertised as the Biden Presidency.
Obama’s method of avoiding scrutiny from the pliant DC press was entirely in character, alternately drawing back into the shadows and then, out of whatever ego weakness, announcing that he was the true mover of events.
https://unherd.com/2024/11/how-trump-crushed-obamas-legacy/
This leftist insurrection is in its nascent formation. Don’t be fooled, the dems are organizing both their political arms as well as their antifa like, street resistance. They will begin by deploying the media, lawfare, lawsuits, and other “legal” means to subvert the Trump agenda. When that fails, they will launch protests in the street funded by Sorea$$ and company.
The Left’s doubling down on their defeat hubris. Is more the reason for non-leftists to double down on keeping them far, far away from the levers of political power. Without an “why we lost” political introspection, there remains only true totalitarianism. Good luck to all!
Oprah made a cool million. A dedicated democrat.
Okra laundered a million.
I don’t get how Trump could have won. The American public’s top goal is that pregnant moms kill their babies. Well if not that, it’s going bankrupt on foreign wars that have nothing to do with our vital national interests. Well if not that it’s making sure men can dominate women in competitive sports and school boys restrooms have tampon dispensers, or at least making sure minors’ genitals can be mutilated without parental consent. Well if not that it’s defunding the police and ensuring the continued presence of violent crime in our cities. Well if not that it’s making sure millions of unvetted foreigners invade our country and rape and murder our girls and young women, and form terrorist sleeper cells waiting to be activated so as to kill and maim thousands of innocent people. Well if not that it’s making sure our foods stay unhealthy and addictive so that big pharma can make a fortune pumping us with pills for life. Well if not that then it’s making sure the federal government colludes with all social media companies to censor any information or opinions that don’t promote Big Brother’s official narrative.
If it’s not any of the above, then surely the most pressing concern of all Americans is that the Hispanic population in this country is reduced to “Latinx.”
Nancy Pelosi doesn’t think the Dem’s have done anything wrong. They are still for the working person! HA!
“I was wrong” will NEVER be uttered by Nancy Pelosi. Not even when she stands before The Almighty God at The Great White Thrown Judgment. She’s too full of herself. “Pride growth before a fall”. WHEN she does fall, she will never recover. The government will continue to function, the world will not end, and no one will miss her.
These Bolsheviks have no intention of stopping. They will burn the house down rather than relinquishing it. The purpose of the media is to inform you how things will be. Agreeing or believing, matters not to them.
What a bunch of LOOSERS! The Trump voters and supporters will speak up this time!!!!
The landslide election of President Donald J. Trump proves that NUTCHACHACHA, aka Gigi, has been 100% wrong all along and is nothing but an unstable, malicious, and inane troll.
BAN FOR LIFE!
Tom: I NEVER predicted the outcome of the election, because the polls were all within the margin of error. Your ad hominem attacks and inability to respond on the merits to the facts I present prove which of us is unstable, malicious and inane. And, I am not wrong in saying that many of those who voted for Trump believed the lies about America being headed in the wrong direction and that our economy was not the stable, success that Biden created, which will continue. Inflation will remain steady until Trump’s tariffs kick in and the economy will continue to grow, and just like he did with Obama’s economy, Trump will take credit. Voters also believed the lies about Trump being somehow capable of causing housing and grocery prices to fall precipitiously and personal wealth to “soar”. Trump’s pre-election approval ratings were below 50% and were below those of Kamala Harris, which proves that support for Trump was not the reason; that, coupled with the fact that polls show that most voters choose based on their own economic interests. Trump’s campaign was nothing but lies, bluster and braggadocio. Time will tell.
Trump’s campaign was nothing but lies, bluster and braggadocio and winning!!. Time will tell.
Gigs, you never “present” facts that you did not cut and paste from elsewhere, in addition to big words and punctuation you learned on this site. give it up, cookie, and just accept that this is how we know you to be.
Tom: where are facts derived from? From those with first-hand knowledge–like pollsters who did favorability polls. Trump had lower approval ratings than Harris, which proves that his “victory” was not based on support for him. I watched coverage of Trump’s campaign rallies–he said the things that were reported. I saw him simulating fellatio on a microphone, talking nonsense–for example, about Hannibal Lector, Arnold Palmer’s penis, and the vicious and misogynistic lies he said about Kamala Harris, calling her “stupid”; also Marco Rubio calling her “trash”, even though she is the sitting Vice President. Would “we” stand for a leader of another country talking about our Vice President like this? Harris took the high road, and the things she said about him are true–he IS a convicted criminal, he was adjudicated liable for sexual assault and is under indictment for crimes that the rest of us couldn’t get away with, like stealing classified documents, falsifying electoral college results and starting an insurrection by lying to his fans. Kamala preached a vision of hope for a brighter future. Trump preached a vision of dystopia–America as a “disaster”–headed in the wrong direction, overrun with murderers, rapists, criminals, vermin and animals–none of whcih is true.
Tom: you don’t speak for “we”–there are thousands of people who read this blog–you don’t represent them. No amount of attacks on me is going to change the fact that most voters voted based on their own financial interests, and that millions of Americans were misled into believing that America is headed in the wrong direction and that our economy is on the brink of disaster–in fact, Trump used the word “disaster” to describe our economy and our country, even though all economists agree that Biden did a remarkable job of turning around the true disaster Trump left for him to fix, that unemployment is at a 54-year low, that economic growth has been steady, inflation is coming down and these trends are likely to continue. When they DO continue, Trump will lie and take credit for it–just like he took credit for the economy created by Obama.
Unemployment is NOT at a 54-year low. Again, proves your cut-and-paste toolbox. Look at the date–that was in the middle of 2023 as we continued to recover from COVID. clown
^^^^^ gigi wants everyone to know that she knows what fellatio and penis are. Good job, she’s a real lady!
Funny enough, even Trump has more class than she, and never stooped that low (to use those words).
“there are thousands of people who read this blog”
And you are the only one who ever gives a ‘like’ to your comments.
well, delusion is your middle name. and like almost all leftists/marxists/totalitarians you are filled with lies and hate. yuck.
You base your defense on the presumption the polls were objective, but there was plenty of bias in the polling methodology.
Geez, what pumpkin truck did you fall off? Better get that concussion looked at. I can’t find one statement in the above tirade that’s true, except, time WILL tell! Trump won because Kamala offered nothing but meaningless word salads and your party is on the side of EVIL – anti-God. Nine-month babies in the womb abortions, child mutilations, open borders, disastrous economy, lies about Joe’s brilliance (i.e. dementia), tampons in boy’s bathrooms, men in women’s sports, pornography in elementary school, drag queen story hour in kindergartens, “do no harm” doctors doing drastic harm to middle schoolers confused because of the constant BS spewed by MSM about transgenders, more than two sexes, can’t define a woman, the list goes on. Look in the frickin’ mirror lady. Seek help, get back on your meds.
“insisting that the election established that half of the nation is composed of racists, misogynists or domination addicts who long to submit to tyranny.”
The proof is in the pudding.
trump is a racist, misogynist. Does it not make sense that those that voted for him are racist misogynists?
^^ Paid DNC troll. Ignore. ^^
never showered with ashley bottom boy.
Right, Hispanic men are racist and black men are now mysogonist. I hope the left wing talking heads keep repeating this. In the words of Donald Trump, I’m one indictment away from being re-elected. Dear democrats, keep telling Hispanic men that they are racist, they supposedly hate black people and that black men can’t accept a woman leading this country.
There is no culture immune from racism. Yes, Hispanic men can be just as racist as white men, black men, green men, red women. All human beings are capability of being racist.
The only contingency Harris was able to hold onto is the college educated women. Is that because Biden/Harris purchased this group using our tax dollars by promising to payoff their student loans? At the same time the so called uneducated voters, who are working hard to stay ahead of inflation and pay their bills, were told that their hard earned tax dollars would be used to help the privileged class pay off their college debt. And now, the educated elites don’t understand why they lost.
Heil trump
https://www.alternet.org/anne-frank-nazis/
Trump is Hitler blah blah blah. Don’t you ever get tired of that childish line? I guess he just plum forgot to rule as Hitler the first time around. Or it was on his to-do list but he didn’t get around to it.
Old man,Trump is Jesus.
No, he’s Tony Lip.
idiot
🙄🙄 Mm-mm. Not working in a free country. Try again.
EDUCATION TIME – STOP using democratic for democrat – there is no democratic party it is the demoncrat party it may or may not be demoncratic however – they are not the same word and are not synonmous
If the democrat party installs officeholders based solely on their apparently satisfactory sexual relations with political benefactors while bypassing primary elections, is it democratic?
* Yes, everyone knows that. They aren’t Democrats. They’ve been dubbed as democratic to make it clear the Democrats aren’t here anymore.
Rage is a bit strong a word. Americans avoid rage. It comes only occasionally, like by the acts of war of Imperial Japan, Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Name-calling by ignorant political adversaries does not provoke a rage response. If the left wants to see rage, just f-around and find out. If the left commits significant violence, then they might see a rage on them that will be stunning. Real national populist rage is a whole other animal the limp-wrist leftists haven’t a clue about.
700 million guns in circulation.
Say When
Jan 6 was a love fest.
Get a life, It was an insurrection. Nazis are crawling out of the woodwork now that trump is going to be Prez.
Open you eyes. it is the right that is causing violence.
What happened to all the alleged election fraud? 2020 was rigged when trump was in charge and he lost.
2024 was supposed to be rigged, the Demos were in charge. Why wasn’t 2024 rigged and full of fraud.
A firehose of lies, that is trump.
Thank you trump voters, you have made American nazi for the first time. I do hope you will stop him when he starts to imprison people without cause.
ahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh
Quite an “insurrection” where nobody brought a weapon and the protesters wanted the current government to stay in power. As for Trump’s role, he requested the National Guard to keep the protest under control. Nancy Pelosi refused that request, as she later admitted, and Marc Milley disobeyed a direct order from his commander in chief to keep the protest peaceful and guard lives and property.
https://cha.house.gov/2024/9/transcripts-show-president-trump-s-directives-to-pentagon-leadership-to-keep-january-6-safe-were-deliberately-ignored
What do you expect when the guy leading the “insurrection” was the first fascist in the history of fascism who wants to decrease the size and power of the central government.
See how much easier it is when you don’t have to make sense?
And where the party insisting he is a fascist is the one that had the central government colluding with the media to censor stories and opinion that didn’t promote the government’s narrative.
bwahahahahaha fearfag, hopefully he starts with YOUR ghey carcass.
I can’t stop laughing…
The last time he was President the same federal courts that ruled for “federal supremacy” on immigration did a “180” and said the states could have their own policies. Refuse to cooperate with ICE-and the feds could not withhold $ in retaliation. I don’t think the fed court care what the law is, they care about getting their way–which increasingly appears to be a weird twisted conception of “selective enforcement” of basic rights. Doubt this? Look up the Morgan Hill flag t-shirt case high school students suspended from school for wearing US flag tees after THEY were threatened with violence. 9th Circuit said OK and SCOTUS refused review. They’re doing this every time in all the bizarre gender-bending cases. So boys get to go into girls showers if they feel like it. (Council Bluffs Iowa case look it up).
A lot of bluster but I suspect Democrat governors will not protest too much, because certainly they realize if they do they won’t be around much longer. Those like Letitia James are finished. All the chest thumping and foot stomping is nothing more than an attempt to scare the bear they’re certain is coming, Just cowardice on display, I’d say. And Trump knows that.
Where is the pride? Where is the dignity in that? And if incapable of appropriate public comportment? Just smh…
Re:”Those like Letitia James are finished…” Just beginning I wager, with eyes on the Governorship. She’ll capitalize on the soft bigotry of low expectation for the intelligence of the low information voter which even those of her own ilk are quick to employ in their pursuit of the brass ring. One can only hope that an epiphany has happened within the ranks of those who voted for her as AG and will reject the attempts to be reminded of how much they need the government to help, when all they really need is themselves.
@zzdoc
She got no traction when she ran last time.
Her eyes are on being Mayor of NYC since Adams is getting busted over some finance stuff.
-G